This Gal Learns to Play Guitar: Day One

It might be a bit premature to be writing about this since it was just yesterday that I started. But I don't really care. I've been working on chipping away my unusual Christmas list and this week I decided to get started on learning how to play the guitar. And I can honestly say I'm loving it so far, even after one day.  As I type this, sore fingers and all, I've semi-mastered a couple of cords. 

I'm not going to sit here and pretend it's easy because it's not. But once I got it into my head that I'm not going be good at it right away, everything became so much more enjoyable. Another thing I've quickly learned is, you have to take frequent breaks or there'll be nothing left of your fingers. I read rumors that things like that might happen, but was hoping my knitting calluses would prevent this a little, but it doesn't. The worst of it is, I'm out of knitting for a bit until my fingers harden up. But don't worry, I won't let that stop me.

Finger grooves!

Remember when I boasted about getting my guitar off eBay for about 20-30 dollars? Yeah, turns out those aren't really suitable for any guitar player let alone a beginner. I guess, they have a really high action (the distance between the frets and the strings), making it difficult to play. As of writing this, I can't really confirm if this is a problem for me or not. That's something I'll be able to judge better when my fingers toughen up a bit... maybe? The other problem with cheap guitars, and this is a biggy, is they don't really stay in tune. For obvious reasons, this is not a good thing. Again, I haven't played it enough to really know if this is an issue. But, until I hit the jackpot and the jackpot being landing a job that pays more than $7.25 an hour, I'm going to make do with the one I have. 

With that being said, I have, indeed, been doing a bit of shopping and am excited for the day that I'm able to upgrade to something better. We're all just going to pretend like I haven't already picked one out. But, like I said, I don't feel like I'm in the position to even know if the guitar I have is terrible or not.

Resources

The Justinguitar.com Beginner's Course

Mahalo Learn Guitar Course

Learning to play the guitar is only one of the many things on my list I've started doing. In the next couple of weeks I'm going have a bunch more to post. So, stay tuned! And follow @thisgalknows on Twitter! Cuz, I love Twitter.

This Gal's Vintage Find: Pink Vogue Couturier Dress

If there's one thing you need to know about me it's that I'm obsessed with the fifties and sixties. I'd say I was born in the wrong era, but this little mixed gal knows she doesn't have the thick skin needed to survive in those times. But seriously, if I had a Delorean and flux compositor I'd totally hop back to every year from 1950-1969 and raid every little shop that I could find and take home some authentic vintage goodies.

So, you'll be able to imagine my excitement when I found a genuine vintage dress at Goodwill. It's this adorable, little, pink totally mod scooter dress. I swear it would fit right into That Girl's closet.

When I got this dress back in May, it not only fit much better, but I also knew very little about dating vintage clothing. Naturally, I went to the good ole reliable Google for some help. I found two awesome resources the first was the wonderful Sammy Davis Vintage website that has an abundance of articles explaining the best ways to identify and date vintage clothing. And the second was a great little book called The Little Guide to Vintage Shopping by Melody Fortier. The next thing I did was I sat down with my dress and went through it with a fine tooth comb.

This Gal's 2013 Photos

Remember that time I started a 365 days of photos project and abandoned it after a little over a month? Me either, I guess we can't all be as awesomely dedicated as my mom, who is now onto her second 365 day photo project. But just because I gave up on taking and posting a photo each day doesn't mean I didn't take plenty of photos all year.

I learned a lot after sifting through all of my photos. The first one being that the photos I thought I'd hated after looking at them on the tiny little screen on the camera look so much better on the computer. Also it seems I really like taking photos of myself.

What are my plans for the blog this year? Well, there are two main things really. I plan on posting something once a week, something I've been trying to do but haven't been succeeding at. And the other thing is finding a place in this damn house to take photos of myself so I can finally post all of those posts I've written but haven't gotten up yet because I lack adequate photos.